After years of campaigning, UK gov't agrees to quash historic anti-gay convictions.

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Three years after World War II code-breaking hero Alan Turing was given a posthumous pardon by the Queen, the government has vowed to amend draft legislation so that thousands of convicted gay and bisexual men who went to their graves as sex offenders will also receive pardons.

Dubbed the "Turing law," deceased men who were convicted of historic anti-gay offences will be formally pardoned.

An amendment—first proposed by Liberal Democrat peer John Sharkey—will be made to the Policing and Crime Bill, with justice minister Sam Gyimah saying that the Tory government was "fulfilling our manifesto pledge." He added that it was "hugely important that we pardon people convicted of historical sexual offences who would be innocent of any crime today."

Homosexuality between men aged over 21 was considered a criminal act in England and Wales until 1967. Turing was convicted of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man in 1952. He killed himself two years later after he lost his job with the secret service and was chemically castrated.

Turing's great niece Rachel Barnes told the Independent: "This is a momentous day for all those who have been convicted under the historic laws, and for their families. The gross indecency law ruined peoples' lives. As Alan Turing received a pardon, it is absolutely right that those who were similarly convicted should receive a pardon as well."

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The government said, however, that it won't be supporting a separate Private Member's Bill that calls for the blanket pardon of those men who are still alive. The current law states that those convicted of the abolished offences need to go through a so-called "disregard process" to have their name cleared. Gyimah said:

A blanket pardon, without the detailed investigations carried out by the home office under the disregard process, could see people guilty of an offence which is still a crime today claiming to be pardoned.

This would cause an extraordinary and unnecessary amount of distress to victims and for this reason the government cannot support the Private Member's Bill. Our way forward will be both faster and fairer.

As part of Thursday's Turing law announcement, the government has agreed to bring in a new statutory pardon for the living in cases where offences have been successfully nixed through the disregard process.